Glenwood School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership, management and governance, by:
  • ensuring that all staff fully understand and enact the school’s vision and values and that there are systems in place for staff to contribute their ideas and raise concerns professionally
  • insisting on higher expectations of what pupils can achieve
  • tackling underperformance and concerns about staff conduct firmly and effectively
  • making sure that governors are systematically provided with the information they need to challenge school leaders and hold them to account
  • strengthening the impact of governance on the performance of the school
  • implementing the recommendations made in the local authority review of the school’s use of the pupil premium.
• Improve teaching, learning, assessment and outcomes, by:
  • making sure that all teachers make full use of information about pupils’ ability and needs to plan appropriately challenging learning
  • fully establishing the new assessment system and supporting staff to use this to improve pupils’ progress in learning and personal development
  • enabling teachers and non-teaching staff to learn from each other, so that the best practice in the school is consistent for all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and the most able.
• Improve pupils’ behaviour and their personal development, by:
  • providing appropriate training and information for all staff, so that they are able to de-escalate conflicts and alleviate pupils’ frustration when communicating
  • promoting consistent use of the school’s behaviour management policy and its expectations of the way that pupils speak to each other in and out of lessons
  • developing pupils’ understanding of how to maintain good friendships and cope with disagreements. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Since the last inspection, school leaders identified that standards had declined and made some changes designed to improve the school’s performance. However, leaders have not been effective in ensuring that all staff meet leaders’ expectations, work together cohesively and convey a common vision.
• Governors, leaders and staff had too generous a view of the school until this inspection. The headteacher had started to make improvements, but she had underestimated the scale of the change needed. In a few cases, school leaders have not been firm enough with staff underperformance or conduct and weaker practice has not improved.
• Until recently, the school has been too insular. Staff have not had enough opportunities to develop their skills and refresh their ideas about what pupils could achieve with higher expectations and better planning. Some guidance and training has not prepared staff well for the challenges they are facing with the changing and increasingly complex needs of pupils.
• School leaders have recently introduced a new system of assessing and tracking pupils’ progress. The improvements that this system was intended to bring about have been slow to materialise. As a result, leaders do not have a clear enough view of pupils’ progress and some teachers find it difficult to get used to the new system.
• Subject leaders have not ensured that teaching and learning are of high quality for all groups. Leaders have not made sure that there is a consistent approach to planning for pupils’ individual needs. There is some strong practice with detailed planning and intelligent design of learning activities. However, in other cases planning is patchy and superficial, which has led to lower than desirable expectations of pupils’ progress.
• Leaders have not succeeded in making sure that all pupils understand what bullying is and how to make and keep friends.
• Parents’ views of the school are mixed. A small number of parents have expressed concerns about the way that staff manage pupils’ challenging behaviour, while other parents are delighted with the progress their children are making and the care they receive. These contradictory views suggest that the school’s approaches and expectations are not yet consistently conveyed.
• Leaders and governors have not analysed in sufficient detail the impact of the use of additional funding such as the pupil premium funding or Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up on the progress of pupils. A recent review of the school’s use of the pupil premium funding has correctly identified some key areas for improvement.
• The local authority previously regarded the school as a low priority for support. Potential weaknesses in the school’s performance were noted in January 2017, but not acted upon with sufficient urgency or directness. Nevertheless, following the first inspection visit to the school in June 2017, the local authority immediately took action and commissioned independent reviews of the school’s use of the pupil premium and safeguarding. These actions have supported the school and helped leaders to step back and form a more realistic view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. A review of governance has also been scheduled.
• School leaders have made strong appointments to key roles in the school. For example, the home–school link worker has had a positive impact on communication with families and has brought a professional and systematic approach to safeguarding and working with other agencies.
• The headteacher and senior leaders are compassionate and ensure that staff have access to specific help and supervision to support them.
• The curriculum is a strength of the school. Pupils learn about a wide range of subjects that prepare them well for their next steps. Pupils study appropriately challenging texts and topics in English. The programmes of work for mathematics ensure that pupils apply their skills, develop their reasoning and solve problems. Pupils benefit from a suitably equipped science laboratory in which they enjoy carrying out practical experiments and investigations.
• Staff are proud of their curriculum areas. Staff ensure that classrooms convey what their subjects are about through stimulating displays and inspiring examples of pupils’ work. Pupils have the chance to create artefacts for the school environment in art and technology and learn skills for life through food technology and physical education. School leaders and staff ensure that pupils have the chance to gain accredited qualifications, including at GCSE level where appropriate.
• There are many extra-curricular clubs that extend pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Throughout the year, pupils get to join in the cycle of celebrations, festivals, sports and cultural activities, including regular trips and visits. Pupils also contribute to an impressive variety of charitable work. This varied range of opportunities for pupils assures their strong spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and enhances their understanding of life in modern Britain.
• Older pupils participate in a wide choice of work experience placements in local businesses. In this way, pupils become part of the community and their contributions are well-regarded by local employers.
• All pupils are eligible for special educational needs funding. The school makes good use of this additional funding to provide support. There are good links with professionals such as speech and language therapists and physiotherapists.

Governance of the school

• Governors have not monitored the school sufficiently closely and have had an overly generous view of its performance. Although governors are well-intentioned and put pupils first, their expectations of what the school could achieve are not high enough. Governors visit the school when they can, but the purpose of their visits and any follow-up actions are not clear or systematic.
• The headteacher has not provided governors with consistently presented information about the performance of the school. As a result, governors are not able to absorb the information about the school and do not have enough time to prepare suitably challenging questions.
• Governors do not hold school leaders to account for the way they manage the performance and conduct of staff.
• More positively, recent appointments to the governing body have brought incisive leadership and insight, particularly regarding the pupil premium, teaching, learning and assessment and the quality of leadership.
• Governors responded well to the recent local authority review of the pupil premium and have put together a useful plan to meet the recommendations.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Pupils are safe in school because staff are vigilant and nurturing. All staff have been trained to recognise signs of abuse, neglect or harm. When there are concerns, staff take prompt action in line with the school’s expectations. A number of senior staff have been trained to be a designated safeguarding leader (DSL). The DSLs make sure that they work closely with other agencies to protect pupils from harm.
• The role of the form tutor has been developed to be a point of contact for pupils and for parents. In addition, the home–school link worker has brought an enhanced level of experience regarding children’s safety and works very effectively with multi-agencies. A number of staff are specially trained to support pupils’ emotional health and welfare.
• The school complies with all statutory aspects regarding safeguarding and child protection. The school’s safeguarding policy reflects the latest guidance and is available on the website. The single central record and other information regarding the safer recruitment of staff are well maintained.
• Following any serious incidents related to safeguarding or unsafe behaviour, leaders carry out a thorough review and amend pupils’ risk assessments and behaviour plans accordingly.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching and learning is too variable across the school.
• Some teachers do not make good enough use of the information they have about pupils to plan work at the right level. Expectations of how much pupils can achieve are too low.
• In some cases, the purpose of lesson activities is not clear, nor how a lesson fits into the bigger picture of a pupil’s targets. As a result, some work in pupils’ books appears disjointed and out of context, leading to patchy progress. In a few subjects, pupils do not know how they are doing or what they should work on as a next step.
• Teachers do not all build upon pupils’ successes to move them to the next stage in their learning, partly because the new assessment system is not being used to its full potential.
• When expectations are high, pupils make good progress. For example, Her Majesty’s Inspector observed pupils exploring difficult ideas about innovative design in a technology lesson. Pupils were encouraged to speculate about how effective a design could be, put forward ideas and then were challenged if their ideas were not logical or practical. The teacher anticipated how pupils would respond and skilfully developed their learning and thinking in a supportive manner.
• In many cases, teachers’ questioning supports pupils’ learning and progress because it probes and draws out their understanding. Many pupils really enjoy practising vocabulary and learning new words and idioms. Teachers rightly pay attention to ensuring that those pupils who have autistic spectrum conditions gain more familiarity with figurative language and inference.
• Pupils often benefit from interesting and imaginatively prepared resources. Attractive materials motivate pupils and are suitably adapted to their abilities.
• The school makes sure that pupils have the opportunity to prepare meals in food technology. Parents are often amazed that pupils have learned to chop vegetables and use a cooker safely and responsibly.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils do not have a secure enough understanding of bullying. They have not had enough guidance to help them cope with the ups and downs of relationships. It is clear that pupils in the school do not deliberately set out to bully each other. However, pupils have not had enough support with managing friendships and how to speak to each other. As a result, squabbles and fallings-out can lead to what pupils perceive to be intentionally hurtful comments and bullying.
• Nevertheless, pupils report that, in some cases for the first time, they have been able to form meaningful friendships in the school. Pupils look out for each other and are keen to support those they consider to be the most vulnerable.
• The school ensures that pupils know how to stay safe when online. Pupils talk knowledgeably about the information that should and should not be shared when using the internet. They know they must not divulge personal information to strangers.
• Pupils who join the school part way through the year settle in quickly and are accepted. They all have opportunities to develop personally, through contributing to activities in school, including charity work and cultural events.
• The large range of work experience opportunities enables pupils to develop their self-confidence in a range of settings.
• When given the opportunity, pupils enjoy talking about themselves, exploring ideas and planning for the future. Through skilful guidance from staff, most pupils improve their ability to empathise and put themselves in others’ shoes.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• A small number of staff do not feel sufficiently well-prepared to manage the behaviour of pupils with the most challenging and complex needs. Some staff feel that pupils’ behaviour is not managed in a consistent way.
• A few pupils sometimes make inappropriate comments to other pupils or use bad language in lessons. Staff do not make good use of the systems and values of the school to help those pupils to regulate their impulses and demonstrate kindness to each other.
• Sometimes pupils’ behaviour at break or lunchtimes becomes overly boisterous, which leads to unintended arguments and conflicts.
• Nevertheless, most pupils know how to behave well. Many report that their behaviour improves while they are at the school because of the strong relationships they develop and the support they receive from staff.
• Pupils are well-mannered with adults and show their appreciation of the help they receive. Most pupils are friendly and confident about speaking to visitors.
• Pupils’ attendance is in line with that of pupils in other special schools and only slightly below that found nationally in mainstream schools. Nearly all disadvantaged pupils attend well. There are a few pupils with particular health difficulties whose attendance is low. In these cases, the home–school link worker has worked closely with parents and, consequently, the attendance of these pupils has improved.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils do not make consistently good progress in all teaching groups and all subjects.
• Weaknesses in assessment and variable expectations affect outcomes for those pupils who are disadvantaged. Their progress is inconsistent in the same way as that of other pupils with similar starting points.
• The most able pupils are not always stretched sufficiently to achieve their potential.
• Some pupils do not benefit from enough personalised support with their speech and language development, reading or writing. This is because they do not receive regular or sufficiently effective support.
• Pupils’ progress in writing is variable. Some pupils do not progress to composing paragraphs and more extended writing, even when they are capable. This is because they are not challenged to do so.
• Pupils’ work shows better progress in mathematics. Pupils develop greater confidence with number work and experience success when applying their mathematical reasoning to real-life problems.
• Good progress is evident in art and in design and technology. Pupils acquire a sense of how to design, and their creative work is underpinned by their knowledge of artists and designers. Pupils gain a real sense of accomplishment from creating something tangible and are proud of their progress. Pupils’ art folders and design and technology portfolios clearly demonstrate a strong work ethic and good progress.
• Pupils develop good staying power when given specific targets and when challenged to practise skills. For example, during a drama lesson groups of pupils rehearsed a scene from a silent film over and over again with enjoyment, persistence and a determination to improve.
• In 2016, most pupils achieved a range of qualifications from entry level to GCSEs. They went on to further education to continue studying further level 1 and 2 qualifications. This year pupils are taking qualifications in a similar range of subjects from entry level to GCSE.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 116639 Hampshire 10012633 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Special School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community special 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 99 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address John Morgan Ruth Witton 01243 373120 www.glenwoodschoolemsworth.co.uk adminoffice@glenwood.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 10 July 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of information on its website.
• The school provides education for pupils who have moderate learning difficulties. There are a number of pupils who have needs associated with social and communication difficulties. Some pupils have additional needs associated with autistic spectrum conditions. All pupils are supported by a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan.
• The school works with a range of different agencies including physiotherapists, educational psychologists, and speech and language therapists.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above that found in most schools.
• Since the last inspection, there has been a change of headteacher. The new headteacher was appointed in September 2014.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors first visited the school in June 2017. Through no fault of the school, the inspection was deemed incomplete. One of Her Majesty’s Inspectors visited the school in July 2017 to gather more evidence about the school’s overall effectiveness.
• During the first inspection visit, inspectors met with school leaders, governors and representatives of the local authority. During the first visit, inspectors carried out observations of learning, reviewed documentation, scrutinised a sample of pupils’ work and spoke to pupils in and out of lessons.
• Her Majesty’s Inspector observed teaching and learning in 14 lessons, spoke to pupils and evaluated a sample of their work. She also met with school leaders, a group of teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils, governors and a representative of the local authority.
• Her Majesty’s Inspector observed the school’s sports morning and attended the end of year awards assembly.
• Inspectors spoke with parents in person and on the telephone, and took into consideration the 15 contributions to Parent View. Six responses to the staff questionnaire were considered, alongside a survey of 34 staff carried out by the local authority between the first and second inspection visit.
• A number of individual staff had meetings with Her Majesty’s Inspector.
• A range of documentation was scrutinised during both parts of the inspection, including information about pupils’ progress and attainment, minutes of governing body meetings, records of safeguarding and behaviour logs.

Inspection team

Liz Bowes, lead inspector (June 2017) Ofsted Inspector Becky Greenhalgh (June 2017) Ofsted Inspector Janet Pearce, lead inspector (July 2017) Her Majesty’s Inspector